


A Man of Modest Wealth and Haphazard Taste

by misura



Category: Primeval: New World
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 18:14:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1097084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>"Budget meeting," Ange said. "When I said 'dinner' just now, I meant 'budget meeting'." She wasn't sure why she even bothered, really.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Man of Modest Wealth and Haphazard Taste

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dreamer_98](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamer_98/gifts).



> these two together are probably my favorite almost-canon pairing - from their first meeting to her getting him out of jail to work for her.
> 
> I wrote this as a treat for someone with clearly great taste in pairings. ;)

"You thought _this_ would be an appropriate place for a meeting to discuss the quarterly budget?" Ange asked, because asking: _you thought this would be a good place for a date?_ might make it sound like she was presuming, which would be bad.

God knew Leeds already did more than enough presuming for both of them.

"Hm?" Leeds said, doing a very good imitation of an absent-minded scatterbrain. (Given his uncanny ability to quote her own words back at her verbatim, she was inclined not to rely on appearances.) "Oh, yes. It's very nice, isn't it?" He looked around the restaurant as if he'd personally decorated it and was now content to decide he'd done a good job of it.

"You've been here before, then." Ange couldn't quite picture Leeds in a tuxedo. She strongly suspected he'd look devastating in one.

"Oh, not at all," Leeds said cheerfully. "Random location, selected at the last minute. Well, the last thirty minutes. Security reasons, you understand."

 _Not really._ "You just ... picked a place to have dinner at random?" She supposed she might think of it as 'adventurous'. Aside from the whole bit with the dinosaurs and the time-traveling, Ange didn't think she had a lot of that going on in her life.

"Controlled list," Leeds said. "I keep track of code violations, positive reviews - that sort of thing. You should try the Soup of the Day - it's very good."

"Budget meeting," Ange said. "When I said 'dinner' just now, I meant 'budget meeting'." She wasn't sure why she even bothered, really. "What kind is it?"

"Quarterly," Leeds said. "I sent you a file." Encrypted, of course, which meant she'd gotten a lovely picture of a bunch of roses in her inbox, which she'd taken to Toby, who'd told her it would take about fifteen minutes to decrypt it, provided she had a key.

"I meant the soup."

"No idea." Leeds smiled at her. Puppies had looked less cute. "Just going by the last reviewer."

"Ah," Ange said.

"He's usually right on the ball," Leeds said. "I've become a bit of a fan, I confess - added myself as one of his 'followers' on Twitter, that sort of thing."

 _He uses airquotes. Why am I not surprised he uses airquotes?_ "Do you tweet?" she asked curiously. He didn't seem the type.

"I ... " Leeds looked confused. "I can whistle? And I do a passable imitation of the greyhorned owl, although I'm not quite sure if that's what you're looking for. Bit of chicken - but then, everyone can do chickens, can't they?"

 _Can't they?_ Ange couldn't say she'd ever felt the slightest inclination to imitate a chicken, but perhaps she was an exception to the general rule. She could imagine Evan spending an afternoon trying to perfect his chicken imitation just fine - especially with a deadline for some sort of project that wasn't related to the Anomalies coming up, damn the man.

"I'm sure," she said, smiling.

"I'm sorry," Leeds said, not adding what for. "You are more than capable of making up your own mind about what soup you want." Unless it was that, in which case apologies were entirely superfluous.

"Will you be having their day special?" At first glance, the menu was fairly standard - nothing too exotic or expensive, which was good if he planned on putting this in an expense report and even better if he intended to pay for it himself. She didn't imagine the Army was paying him all that much.

"I ... haven't quite decided yet," Leeds said, which probably meant he was waiting to see what she'd be having. Ange wasn't entirely sure why he would, but there you were. 

She closed the menu with a snap. "You know what, I just don't feel like making another decision today. I'm going for the day special."

"Excellent idea." Leeds beamed at her and for one irrational moment, Ange wondered if she'd just been managed somehow, then decided she was just being silly.

"When I said I didn't feel like making any more decisions, I didn't refer to the budget, of course. I'll definitely be making decisions about the budget."

"Quarterly budget." Leeds bobbed his head. "And of course. I completely understand."

 _Do you? So what sort of decisions are_ you _making all day long, Lieutenant? Whether or not to follow orders?_ Unfair, perhaps; he'd always proved ready and willing to help her, even before she'd gotten folded into his official chain of command. _Before I got him out of jail._

Even Evan at his lowest point had never landed himself in jail. Of course, Evan did have a great many other faults, not the least of which was that he very rarely had proven to be ready and willing to help not just her, but himself, too. Irresponsible, was what Evan was. Nothing at all like Leeds, who was delightfully dependable.

She wondered if he was a good kisser, and then she wondered how easy it would be to find out.

"So," she said.

"So?" Leeds asked.

"The budget," she said, then checked herself: "Quarterly budget."

"Oh. Right. Perhaps we should let it wait until the main course?" Leeds smiled a bit sheepishly. "Soup, you know. Liquids. And hot, too - not that that's going to make much of a difference - well, not to the budget, anyway. The paper the budget is on."

"And then, when the main course has been served, we won't have enough space on the table?"

Leeds looked slightly taken aback, as if he hadn't for a moment considered that. "Yes. Well. Dessert?"

"Also liquid, at least when it starts melting," Ange said. "Which it will, if we spend too much time talking."

"That _is_ unfortunate," Leeds said. "I must confess, it would seem I hadn't quite thought this through."

 _It would seem so, indeed._ It was refreshing, in a way, to work with someone who avoided work by being devious and plying her with (hopefully) good food, instead of just ignoring her calls and blowing her off. "I suppose we could just enjoy dinner and reschedule the budget meeting until tomorrow."

"Oh," Leeds said, perking up. "If you're free later tonight, that would be outstanding. Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today, right?"

Ange picked up her spoon and tried the soup. "You're very ambitious, Lieutenant." _And quite mad, if you think I'm going to invite you back to my apartment for a discussion about the budget._

Leeds smiled. "Thank you, Miss Finch. I do try."

The soup was delicious. "Indeed you do." _And if the goal was to get me to take you home and get your clothes off, you may very well succeed. Assuming the rest of the food is as good as the soup._


End file.
